Taxpayers get one-day reprieve after IRS site crashes
The Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that its April 17 deadline for filing taxes was moved to the next day after many Americans rushing to submit their returns electronically encountered glitches.
Earlier on Tuesday, a link to the IRS direct pay page was down, which could prevent individuals from paying their taxes before the deadline. The IRS announced that the April 17 deadline was moved to April 18 as a result.
The agency insisted filers should continue to proceed as usual while the issue was ironed out. The system was back online by late Tuesday.
"The IRS encountered system issues Tuesday morning. Throughout the system outage, taxpayers were still able to file their tax returns electronically through their software providers and Free File," the IRS said in a statement.
The glitch is the result of a problem between the website and software companies, Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter said, as reported by Politico.
The agency was planning a “hard reboot” of its systems, a congressional official told The Washington Post.
Meanwhile, CNN noted some Twitter users were posting bizarre messages they received on the IRS site, which said the direct pay page was down because of “planned maintenance” until 6:40 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.
Filing and paying late can result in penalties for taxpayers. A penalty is issued first for filing late: 5% of the amount of unpaid taxes each month, up to a maximum of 25%. The penalty for paying late is 0.5% of the amount owed each month up to a maximum of 25%. If both penalties are due in the same month, the failure-to-file penalty is reduced to 0.5%.
Taxpayers unable to pay because of the site’s technical glitches will not be penalized, Kautter said during a congressional oversight hearing on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.